SOUNDING OUT:
Is Your Foundation Sure?

  How confused and angry David could have been when he considered his treatment by Saul. David had never done anything but his best for the king. He fought Goliath. He played music to soothe Saul’s troubled soul. He had done nothing to deserve the treatment he received. Surely if anyone was wrongly condemned and mistreated, David was.

  David didn’t let this treatment deter him. The temptation facing David was to not keep his trust in God. We can see his passion in the first verse.

  He asserts his trust in God and distains the advice to succumb to the temptation and flee. It is not that the advice is so bad or distasteful in itself, for later when he and Jonathan discuss the situation, he does decide to flee. David was not offended by the counsel, but rather by the manner in which it was given. It cut him to his very heart and soul. Their comment “to flee as a bird to the mountain” was given with “tongue in cheek.” Are you familiar with that idiom? It was spoken insincerely or ironically or whimsically or maybe even a bit sarcastically. It was in a gibing, jeering way, as if his flight would make any difference. “Flee as a bird to your mountain.” The intent of the comment that cut David to the soul was that the flight would serve no purpose. David, like a bird, would be unlikely to find any safety there. Indeed I Samuel 26:20 says that Saul sought him as one would hunt a partridge in the mountains.

  Verse 2 paints the picture of the hunt even more clearly.

  The wicked are armed and ready. They have the righteous in their sights and their finger on the trigger, so to speak. They have the ambush set, and are secretly seeking an occasion.

  “Foundations” refers to those things which have been fixed, settled, and established.” It refers to the things upon which we base our lives. If it were true that the foundations were destroyed what could the righteous do? Praise God it doesn’t say that the foundations were destroyed. It says “if!” All this was designed to get David fearful; to get him to quit trusting in God; after all David what can you do? The adversary wanted to shake the very foundations of his life. How can God be just? How can God be righteous? How can God let these things happen to me?

  I went through a period in my life where it seemed like my foundations were destroyed. It was as if the proverbial rug was pulled out from under my feet while I was standing on it. My whole world seemed to go topsy-turvy. I could hardly believe what was going on. I began to see however, the devilish ambush that was set for me. It was the devil that wanted to shake me at my very foundations. It was the devil who wanted to destroy my trust in God. It was the devil who wanted me to abandon the greatness of the Word that God had taught me. I had to come to grips with the fact that men were not what they had seemed. Yes, those I thought to be friends and loved ones deserted and abandoned me, but God didn’t.

  God hasn’t changed and He never will. He has declared His Word, and He will never let it fall to the ground.

  Psalm 119:89 says, “For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.” That Word will never change, and if it is the foundation then our foundation is sure and steadfast. Remember how the serpent tried to pull the rug out from under Eve in the garden. He asked, “Yea, hath God said?” and today he is pursuing the same tactics. The Bible is still the central object of his assaults. Did God really say that? Is what I was taught true? What’s true? What’s not true? What is the Word of God and what is the word of men?

  Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” Paul was thankful that when he spoke God’s Word to the folks at Thessalonica they received it as the words of God and not the words of men. Well, Paul spoke the truth. They received it as the truth and were blessed. How did they know it was God’s Word and not the words of men? “It worked effectually in them as they believed.” When the truth is spoken and believed, it works. There’s joy and peace in believing when it is the Word of God we believe. Sure there are difficulties in life. We wouldn’t be more than conquerors if there was nothing to overcome. Problems can still arise when the doctrine is true, but problems should never arise because of the doctrine.

  The truth of God’s Word brings deliverance, not bondage. It brings peace not turmoil. It provides power; it does not breed powerlessness. The word said it worked effectually. Do you know the difference between effectively and effectually? Effective means capable of bringing about an effect or result. Effectual means capable of producing an intended effect. God’s Word brings about what it says it will. When we believe the promise we get the results. The believers in Thessalonica knew that what Paul taught them was true because it worked effectually in them. They applied the Word and got the results.

  1 Thessalonians 5:21 says, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” Remember Thessalonians were the first epistles that God had written. He wanted people to prove the Word. He wants us to prove His good, acceptable and perfect will. Don’t believe it just because I say it or the right reverend so and so says it. As if this guy or that guy is always right. If he has it I believe it. God says no matter who says it, prove it. If it is God’s Word it will prove itself good acceptable and perfect.

  Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Proverbs 30:5 also echoes this truth saying, “Every word of God is pure.” Psalm 18:30 says, “As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.”

  God doesn’t want us to defer judgment to other people. We are to make our own decisions for our own lives and we will stand approved before God as we rightly divide the Word of truth.

  The Bereans also were blessed with the teaching of the Word.

  He was tempted to quit on God. He was tempted to lose his trust in God, but he didn’t. Why not? He was mistreated and abused, but he did not blame God for it or run away and hide. How did he get passed it? The rest of the Psalm tells us how.

  Into every other sphere man pushes his investigations, but the Book of books is neglected, and this, not only by the ignorant, and illiterate, but by the wise of this world as well. The Bible does not fear investigation. Instead of fearing it, the Bible courts and challenges consideration and examination. The more widely it is known, the more closely it is read, the more carefully it is studied, the more unreservedly will it be received as the Word of God.

  Believers do not want to be deceived. Christians are not a company of enthusiastic fanatics. They are not lovers of myths. They are not anxious to believe a delusion. They do not desire their lives to be molded by an empty superstition. They do not wish to mistake hallucination for inspiration. If they are wrong, they wish to be set right. If they are mistaken, they desire to be corrected.

  If the Bible is not inspired in the strictest sense of the word then it is worthless, for it claims to be God’s Word, and if its claims are not true, then its statements are unreliable and its contents are untrustworthy. If, on the other hand, it can be shown to the satisfaction of every impartial inquirer that the Bible is the Word of God, inerrant and infallible, then we have a starting point from which we can advance on the quest of all truth.

  How’s your foundation? Have you checked it recently?